Judging from the voluminous prior art in the field of portable cooking and barbecue grills, it can be inferred that the difficulties encountered when trying to cook over an open fire, such as a camp fire, are well understood and have resulted in the prior art post-mounted cooking and barbecue grills listed below.
Generally, it is recognized in the prior art that a convenient form of supporting cooking utensils over an open fire includes a single post which may be driven into the ground adjacent the fire. Cantilevered supports are adjustably mounted to the post so that a user may adjust the height of the supports over the open fire. The supports may be rigid cantilevered arms from which may be suspended cooking utensils. The cantilevered arms may have generally planar horizontal members such as grills mounted or mountable thereto. The cantilevered arms may be pivotally mounted to the post or may be rigidly affixed, for example, generally horizontally. The post may be stabilized merely by being driven into the ground to a suitable depth, or may be stabilized by a base member rigidly mounted to the post and extending generally horizontally therefrom adjacent a lowermost end of the post, so that when the post has been driven into the ground, the base member lies flush with the ground-level surface.
In the prior art, such devices are disclosed in the following patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,523,200 issued to Durst 2,604,884 issued to Walker 2,827,846 issued to Karkling 2,844,139 issued to Lucas 2,912,973 issued to Lucas 2,914,283 issued to Jorgenson 2,940,439 issued to Bartels 2,960,979 issued to Stone 2,974,662 issued to Forrest 2,977,953 issued to Dowdy 3,067,734 issued to Lucas 3,152,536 issued to Lucas 3,261,344 issued to Petric 3,344,780 issued to Anderson 3,395,692 issued to Johns 3,498,210 issued to O'Toole 3,526,217 issued to Garske 4,094,296 issued to Beagley 4,351,312 issued to Ivy 4,363,313 issued to Smith 4,538,589 issued to Preston 4,553,525 issued to Ruble 4,607,608 issued to Allred 4,719,898 issued to Stanislawski 4,854,297 issued to Shuman 4,856,423 issued to Burns 4,896,651 issued to Kott, Jr. 4,979,490 issued to Nudo 5,188,089 issued to Hamilton 5,287,844 issued to Fieber 5,307,797 issued to Klecfeld 5,355,867 issued to Hall 5,447,096 issued to Burge Canadian Patent Numbers: 1,170,136 issued to Connely 1,185,854 issued to Pianta 1,286,936 issued to Shuman 2,030,717 issued to Marshall ______________________________________
What is neither taught nor suggested in the prior art, and which it is an object of the present invention to provide, is a means of conveniently storing the cantilevered arms, cooking grills and post in a unitary package so as to occupy a minimum of space and so as to minimize weight. These are, of course, important features of a utensil intended to be carried by people backpacking or otherwise those who while camping do not have the luxury of a motorized camper.